Nasa announced that veteran astronaut Butch Wilmore has retired from the agency, less than five months after returning from an unexpectedly prolonged mission to the International Space Station.Wilmore, 62, and fellow astronaut Suni Williams launched last summer as test pilots aboard Boeing’s first crewed Starliner flight. The mission, initially planned as a weeklong stay, stretched to more than nine months due to technical issues with the spacecraft. Starliner eventually returned to Earth without its crew, while Wilmore and Williams came back in March aboard a SpaceX capsule.A retired Navy captain, Wilmore was selected as a Nasa astronaut in 2000 and flew on three space missions, logging 464 days in orbit. His most recent mission accounted for nearly two-thirds of that time, totaling 286 days.Williams, 59, remains with Nasa and recently joined second lady Usha Vance at Johnson Space Center in Houston for a children’s summer reading challenge.“Throughout his career, Butch has exemplified the technical excellence of what is required of an astronaut,” said Nasa chief astronaut Joe Acaba. “As he steps into this new chapter, that same dedication will no doubt continue to show in whatever he decides to do next.”
